The Effects of Obesity on Outcomes in Trauma Injury: Overview of the Current Literature

• Main Authors: Milad Modarresi, Brad Gillon, Javad Najjar Mojarrab, Rodrigo Aguilar, Zackary Dylan Hunter, Matthew Steven Schade, Jackie Sanabria, Rebecca Klug, Seth Adkins, Juan R. Sanabria
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Marshall University 2019-03-01
• Series: Marshall Journal of Medicine
• Subjects: Trauma Review; Injuries; Obesity; BMI
• Online Access: https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1136&context=mjm

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions and is now considered a chronic disease by the National Institute of Health (NIH) in the West. Its impact on trauma outcomes is of particular interest with several studies presenting conflicting information. The present overview suggests a strong association between obesity and injury severity, hospital length of stay (LOS), intensive care unit (ICU) admission, pattern of injury, rate of complications and mortality. The nature of the observations may relate to an underlying physiological state of the obese patient and its associated comorbidities with a constant heightened inflammatory state aggravated by the second hit on an injury.